Environmental, societal and health disruptions are making our future uncertain. Worry permeates conversations, the media and social networks. Our imaginations are running wild. They illustrate our fears, but also our desire for change. Based on transdisciplinary scientific analysis, Renaissances offers a powerful emotional experience. It allows us to decipher these imaginaries and use them as a springboard for construction. It's an opportunity to ask questions about the future of our society, and to take part in the great fork in the road ahead.

Renaissances is a temporary exhibition at the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie in Paris, France, which closed in March 2022. Renaissances still has two offerings: an online experience and a collection of futuristic fictions.

For this exhibition, graphic designer and illustrator Tristan Maillet used the typefaces Maax Raw and Maax Raw Stencil, designed by Damien Gautier and available from 205TF. The scenography was designed by Les Crayons and Yves Morel Workshop.

Why Graphic Culture Matters is the title of the newest book by British design writer, critic and lecturer Rick Poynor. Published by Occasional Papers, the book is a collection of 46 “essays, polemics and proposals about art, design and visual communication”.

Topics include the commercial takeover of design, design criticism and history, the interplay of word and image, design celebrity, the canon, graphic authorship, critical forms of practice, and the enduring intimacy between art and design.

Sara De Bondt provided the book design, assisted by Leroy Meyer. For the cover, they brought together three contemporary typeface designs that all happen to have names starting with the letter M.

The title makes use of the power of Maax Raw Stencil (2017), a graphic variant of Damien Gautier’s extensive sans-serif series. It’s set with one word per line, and in alternating line colors, putting emphasis on every single word. The double t ligature with its shared and unbroken crossbar feels like a band aid that brings some relief to the sliced-up letterforms. The subtitle in Muoto (2021), another release by French foundry 205TF, echoes the four colors of the title, here in the form of a horizontal gradient fill. Lastly, the author’s name is added in Mule. This smoothened interpretation of a Modern/Scotch takes inspiration from an early-20th century specimen by the Inland foundry. Mule was designed by Samira Schneuwly at ECAL in 2022.

In the context of the Madrid Design Festival 2023, the American Hardwood Export Council (AHEC) organized an exhibition – Natural Connections – at Matadero Madrid with the aim of fostering a playful, conscious, and nature-focused connection between materials and people. The challenge was to design a visual identity that would authentically reflect this connection with wood and nature.

To achieve this, we deliberately chose to use the Maax Raw typeface as a key element in our visual identity. Maax Raw captures the essence of the exhibition and its relationship with nature. Its unrefined appearance and closed forms evoke the authenticity of wood and AHEC's commitment to sustainability. By combining this typeface with nature-inspired visual elements such as lines, logs, and tree rings, we created a visual identity that distinctly and cohesively represents the connection with wood. Secondary information is set in Noto Serif.

For the exhibition, catalog and collateral for Martin Parr: Souvenir at Miguel Urrutia Art Museum (MAMU, Bogotá), Tangrama used Maax Raw Stencil (designed by Damien Gautier and distributed by 205TF) and Fugue (designed by Radim Peško).

From Tangrama’s website:

For the development of the graphic identity of the exhibition, we worked with the Maax Raw typeface in its stencil version, to refer to concepts such as the transport of goods and souvenirs.

For the entry of the exhibition, we developed a montage that simulates a commercial shelf of stencil letters and images from Martin Parr’s photographs. The background wall is covered with a wallpaper that recalls the domestic interiors captured by the early work of this English photographer.

For the exhibition room, Tangrama proposed a color palette based on each of the series included in the exhibition and extended sheets with a laser cut lettering for the holders. Between each series, a blank strip was left on the wall to accentuate the soft color changes.

Bureau 205 choose Maax Raw, created by Damien Gautier, to design the signage of the Marché gare (concert hall and residences).

Foraneo is a new industrial design office focused on developing spaces and objects. We developed the entire branding based on Maax Raw Stencil. The typeface is used for text and also for graphic elements. The greyscale tones are based on the main materials used in their work.

The website www.foraneo.mx has not been launched yet.

Bureau 205 has conceived the graphic design of the exhibition La Confluence, 15 ans déjà with Maax Raw Stencil Bold created by Damien Gautier.

The number 13 in the background is set in 205TF’s Beretta.

Ten years after designing the visual identity of the urban project Lyon Confluence, Bureau 205 imagined its evolution in 2016. The system is deployed on the editions, scenography of exhibitions, construction site signs. It was designed with the new version of the Maax typeface: Maax Raw created by Damien Gautier.

Photos: Zoé Chambert, Juliette Treillet.

Bureau 205 designed the identity of the urban rehabilitation project Lyon Confluence. Communication is taking shape for editions, booklets, exhibitions and in public space.
The designers chose the new variation of the Maax typeface: Maax Raw, created by Damien Gautier and available soon at 205.tf! Maax Raw will exist in 5 styles: regular and bold along with a stencil version and 2 rotalics.